Masquerade
by cockycute
Summary: Regina and Jefferson travel back to Wonderland during a masquerade ball, during which, Regina realizes that the most exciting dance is the one that they've been doing with each other their whole lives.


His daughter was gone. She had been taken away from him forever. He would never get her back. His heart ached every time that he saw his Grace, because he knew that he could never be her father again, never hold her again. Never hear her laugh or see her smile- at least, not because of something that he had done. This was his curse, the worst curse of all in his opinion. To remember his daughter, but to have been forgotten by her. It broke his heart. And it was all because of that evil witch Regina. If it hadn't been for her, he would still have his daughter. He would be poor, but at least he would have her love, which, to him, was the greatest treasure of all.  
There was an imperious knock on his door. Jefferson knew exactly who it was. "I'm done with you, Regina. No more favors. I'm not going to help you anymore. I won't be a pawn in your twisted games."  
"I think you will when you hear my proposal." The queen smirked with pure conceit.  
"There is nothing that you can threaten me with that's worse than what you've already done." Jefferson snarled.  
"Oh, I'm not here to threaten you, Jefferson. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm here to make a deal with you. You can have Grace back. If you take me back to Wonderland."  
"You must be joking." Jefferson laughed bitterly. "Last time I took you to Wonderland, you left me there!"  
"Well, I won't this time, obviously. I'll bring a dead body, or some person who is of no use to me. No, you're much too valuable for me to leave." Regina caressed Jefferson's face and smiled seductively.  
"That didn't seem to bother you too much last time."  
Regina stopped smiling and arranged her face into her trademark sneer. "I had a curse last time."  
"What if I still don't trust you."  
"Well, that, Jefferson, is your prerogative. But if you want your daughter back, then you'd better at least try."  
"What do you want from Wonderland?"  
"That's for me to know and for you to find out."  
Despite his better judgement, Jefferson agreed to take the Queen back to Wonderland. It was just as trippy as ever. Regina burned a hole in the foliage again, and they were caught by the guards again. They guards brought them up to the Queen of time her face was uncovered and Jefferson could see that she had brown eyes and a fox-like face and that she had once been very beautiful.  
"Hello, mother." Regina sneered.  
Jefferson snickered. "I should have known."  
"I see you're still trespassing in my realms."  
"I see you're still playing House with a race of morons."  
The Queen of Hearts smirked at her daughter's outburst, and suddenly, Jefferson could see the family resemblance.  
"What is it that you want, Regina?"  
"All I want is to pay a visit to my mother who I haven't seen since I was a teenager." Regina simpered with saccharine-sweet innocence. Cora narrowed her eyes, but smiled hospitably at her daughter. "Well, then. We'll need two more places set for the banquet. We're having a masquerade ball tonight."  
"Just like my coronation."  
"Yes, well, unfortunately, I missed that. I was too busy being exiled into a mirror by my daughter." A trace of venom had trickled into Cora's voice.  
"I hope you're not still angry about that mother. It's ancient history."  
"Of course." Jefferson could practically feel the waves of rage radiating off of Cora's body. "Come. This will be a night to remember." Cora led them into her palace. It was extremely opulent, but not, Regina noted with pleasure, more opulent than her own. Cora led her up to her room and gave Regina a mask to wear to the ball. Regina knew that it was the simplest mask that Cora had, but she was sure that she would still outshine her mother and every other woman in the room.  
She danced with many men, their clothes and masks blending into one another. Until an incredibly handsome, compelling man took her hand. He swept her around the room. He was the best dancer of the nice. She was impressed by him, which was surprising, because Regina was rarely impressed. "You're very talented." She paid him a rare compliment.  
"Why, thank you, My Queen." He replied with a smirk.  
"Jefferson?! Where on earth did you learn how to dance?"  
"I took lessons when I was a part of your royal court. When I worked as your personal entertainer."  
"Oh, come now, Jefferson. You know you meant more to me than that."  
"Did I?" He asked bitterly as he spun her out.  
"Of course. You could do magic even I can't do. You were the most important person on my court. You were irreplaceable." Jefferson spun Regina back in. Their bodies were inches apart.  
"Why did you really come here, Regina?"  
"If you must know, I was looking for a spell to bring back Daniel. I've always suspected that my mom has kept it from me, fearing that love would make me weak." She was glad that she was wearing a mask that hid her face, because she felt that the other mask that she usually wore was slipping.  
"Love isn't weakness, it's strength. My love for Grace and the hope that I would get her back someday were the only things that got me through the endless agony of your curse."  
"You know what's worse agony? Having everyone in your kingdom hate you, even the people you thought were your friends."  
"I've never hated you. Quite the opposite in fact." Jefferson's lips brushed against hers. Regina's breath caught. She felt something other than hatred for another person for the first time since Daniel's death. Regina felt a tap on her shoulder.  
"May I cut in?" A dashing man in a black velvet suit requested.  
"Of course." Jefferson bowed and stepped back. The black-suited man spun Regina away from Jefferson. His dance moves were smooth and easy to follow, but Regina couldn't help longing for the man that she'd just been dancing with. The man she'd been dancing with her whole life. She'd manipulated him and left him, she spun him around until he didn't know which way was up. But she'd always come back to him. She'd always come back for one last dance.

Later that night, Regina snuck into her mother's room and rifled through her spell books to find one that would bring back the dead. She looked through every page of every book, but she couldn't find it. She sighed in frustration.  
"You won't find it." Regina jumped at her mother's voice. "It doesn't exist. No one can bring back the dead. Not even me."  
"I'm not trying to bring back the dead." Regina informed her mother imperiously.  
"Don't be ridiculous. I knew from the moment you entered Wonderland that that was what you were after. After all, why else would you visit me?" Cora laughed bitterly, then she continued. "You're also being silly. Daniel was nothing. He dragged you down. You would have been miserable. He would have kept you from becoming the woman you are today."  
"You mean a lonely, bitter, angry sociopath without any friends?"  
"I mean a beautiful, feminine, powerful queen who has a man that loves her. A man who would drop everything to do anything for her."  
"What are you talking about?"  
"Are you really that blind? I know I raised you to be better than this."  
"You didn't raise me at all. You left me to raise myself. You were too busy social climbing."  
"Don't be theatrical, Regina. Jefferson is obviously head-over-heels for you, and you're too obsessed with the past to notice." Regina wondered if her mother was right. Jefferson did always drop whatever he was doing to help her. He would always come back to her, no matter how poorly she treated him. But that was because she paid and threatened him, not because he was in love with her, right? Suddenly, she realized what her mother was trying to do. "You're trying to trick me! You're trying to make me weak again so that you can beat me. To think that I almost fell for it!"  
"Of course I'm not! I'm just trying to give you the one thing I never had: Love!"  
"Nice try, mother! I'm leaving in the morning." Regina slammed the door. She couldn't believe that after all these years, her mother could still get under her skin like this.  
She wondered if anything that her mother had said was true. She desperately hoped that it was, but shoved those thoughts out of her head before they could make her vulnerable. She walked into the room that Jefferson was staying in. "We're leaving." She told him.  
"Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked her sleepily.  
"No."  
"What happened?"  
"I decided that I didn't want to be weak." Regina swallowed her feelings and slid her mask back into place. "Now, come on. We're going back to Storybrooke." Jefferson got back up and they walked to the portal together in silence. It was still open, but it was a lot smaller and weaker than they had left it. Right before they walked through it, Jefferson kissed Regina. It was amazing, better than any kiss king Leopold had given her. Better than any kiss with Daniel. Better even, than the rush that she got from magic. It took all of her willpower to push him away.  
"The portal's closing, you lovesick fool. You're just like Sidney Glass. Putty in my capable hands." She could see the betrayal in his eyes, but she forced herself to shove her heartbreak down, into the abyss of her black heart. Love was weakness, and she wanted to be strong. They walked through the portal together, knowing that this would be the last time for either of them.  
"Your precious Grace is back." Regina sneered. Then she walked out without so much as a thank you. Just as she always had. But this time it was different. This was the last time they would do magic together.  
Regina watched as Jefferson hugged Grace. He smiled and spun her around. He had his daughter back, the daughter that she had taken away from him. Despite all that she had put him through, Regina was jealous of him. He had the two things that she would never allow herself to have. He had happiness. And he had love.


End file.
